Many motorists, having left precious objects or documents in their vehicles, have been unpleasantly surprised to discover that these objects or documents have been stolen from their parked vehicles. The remedy would apparently be to leave nothing in the vehicle, but this is not always very easy when travelling.
It is an object of the invention to overcome this problem by providing a safe in the vehicle. Of course, this safe must not be easily detachable from the structure of the vehicle, against the wishes of its owner.
Most vehicles are not intended to transport a safe and it is therefore important to have the possibility of moving the safe within the enclosure in which it is disposed, whilst maintaining it vandal-and burglar-proof, so as to render the presence of the safe as discreet as possible with respect to the normal use of the vehicle. For example, where the safe is contained inside the boot of a private car, every effort must be made, whilst leaving the safe attached to the structure of this vehicle, to enable it to occupy several locations which do not hinder the luggage.
GB-A-2 105 399 describes the conventional installation of a safe in a vehicle, the safe being permanently fixed in one single position inside the vehicle.
U.S. Pat. No. US-A-4 457 240 discloses a resistant box adapted to be carried by its owner, but, apparently, being fixable on the structure of a vehicle only at one location. There again, the problem of the inconvenience of the presence of such an object in an enclosure initially intended for another use has not been seen and no solution has been proposed to minimize it. Moreover, the very shape of the box represented does not render it particularly practical for transporting, in safety, precious objects such as for example small cases, briefcases, attache cases, capable of containing precious objects or documents.
From these observations, the invention has defined the concept of a safe assembly usable in vehicles, adapted to be placed in the boot, or elsewhere, depending on its size, but also usable in non-mobile dwellings and in mobile machines, other than automobile vehicles, such as public works machines, aircraft or low-tonnage ships.